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Politicians and the drinks industry today dismissed a police chief’s call for the legal drinking age to be raised to 21 in a bid to counter underage, anti-social drinkers.

Cheshire Chief Constable Peter Fahy said he would like to see the legal drinking age raised by three years, as well as a smoking-style ban on drinking alcohol in public places.

But changing the legal drinking age limit was swiftly ruled out by the Government and the Tory Party and criticised by bodies representative of the lucrative drinks industry.

Home Office minister Meg Hillier said: “If we raise the age to 21, it’s not going to stop people. It would demonise or prevent a lot of adults who are drinking quite responsibly.”

She added there were no plans for a blanket ban on drinking in public and it was up to local councils to decide what was appropriate in their area.

The minister said it was not a problem the government or laws could solve but was a matter of changing social attitudes.

She also pointed the finger at “drunken pop stars” who set a bad example and said they “frankly should know better”.

Conservative home affairs spokesman James Brokenshire said the solution was to give local communities more power over the operation of licensing and more visible community policing.

He said: “Just having a 21-year-limit will not deal with the 11 and 12-year-olds who are binge drinking on a monthly basis and the 15 and 16-year-olds who are getting alcohol very freely.”

He claimed the Government had failed by introducing licensing laws which had actually expanded the availability of alcohol and had not tackled issues of family breakdown.

“Rather than getting the cafe culture they were promising, we are actually getting a violent crime culture,” he said.

Mr Fahy suggested the drastic measures after claiming alcohol was fuelling a wave of violence and disorder across Britain and attacking parents for not controlling their children.

He claimed alcohol was too cheap and too strong for young people to handle, and said a “hardcore” of parents were turning a blind eye with some even buying drink for their children.

The constable spoke out following the appearance in court of three boys charged with the murder of Garry Newlove.

A fourth teenager, Adam William Swellings, 18, of Meredith Street, Crewe, appeared at Runcorn Magistrates Court today charged with the murder and was remanded in custody.

Mr Newlove, 47, was attacked outside his home in Warrington, Cheshire, last Friday night in a confrontation with youths who had vandalised a mechanical digger. He died later in hospital.

When asked last night if he would like to see the legal drinking age raised to 21, Mr Fahy said: “Yes, absolutely.”

And today the constable called for a reverse to the current situation where people can drink anywhere in public unless the local authority has designated otherwise.

He told BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: “I would actually like to see the emphasis changed the other way: that we actually say drinking in public is not permitted apart from in those areas where a local community, local authority say ‘yes, in this particular park, this particular location, people can drink’.

“It’s that sort of thing which changes the popular culture, which starts getting the message across.”

There were fewer police officers on the street during the day because they were having to act as “surrogate parents” at night, he claimed.

But the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WTSA) dismissed the idea that cheap, available alcohol was to blame for anti-social behaviour as “too simplistic”.

Chief executive Jeremy Beadles said it had long been calling for greater co-ordination to help tackle the “small minority of young people making others’ lives a misery”.

This meant more and more young people were resorting to “proxy purchasing” through older friends, siblings and occasionally parents, he added.

He also questioned the suggestion of raising the drinking age, saying: “18-21 year olds are not children; they are entitled to vote, many have families and by this age they have often been in full-time employment for many years.

“At 18, you are judged responsible enough to join the police.”

The Portman Group, set up by drinks producers which together supply the majority of the alcohol sold in the UK, said raising the drinking age could actually aggravate the problem.

Its chief executive David Poley said: “If 18-year-olds are allowed to smoke, vote and go to war, they should also be trusted to drink.

“Raising the drinking age could force more young people to drink unsupervised, increasing the risk of accidents and anti-social behaviour.

“We can curb alcohol-related problems through more effective education, greater parental responsibility and tougher enforcement of the law on underage sales.”